Author Topic: Buying games at release.  (Read 3025 times)

Offline K-man

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Buying games at release.
« on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 08:14:12 AM »
In my twenties I would be the guy standing in line at midnight for a new game release.  The cycle of announcement, preorder, anticipation, and being one of the first to get my hands on a game was an exciting one for me.  I truly enjoyed participating in the release window buzz about a title, especially the big AAA titles with wide appeal.  In the past decade the amount of available free time has declined significantly, and so has my interaction with all things gaming.  I still consider it a primary hobby, but I am mostly hands-off with the media and just cherry pick the titles I feel are must-play.  But even then I do not purchase them at release.  In fact I cannot remember the last time I paid full price for a game, much less purchased it on day one. 

I came close with Civ 6.  I pre-ordered to take advantage of Amazon's prime discount (20% off preorders through two weeks post-release).  Ultimately, I guess for stock reasons, Amazon did not ship my copy out the day of release.  Instead of waiting, I canceled my preorder.  Despite almost universal critical praise, there are players who are very dissatisfied with the game as it stands.  It will probably be fixed, either with patches or expansions.  Typical cycle for a civ game.  The new iteration takes a step back from the previous, fully realized title, and will eventually be fixed enough to surpass it.  So I've decided to wait for that to happen.

I'm curious about the rest of you. Do you still buy games at release?  Or is my behavior due to life circumstances?


Offline Xessive

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 01:59:16 PM »
I do but it depends on how excited I am about a game.

I'll admit that I do pre-purchase when the offer is enticing enough such as a significant discount (20%+) or when it's a game I know I'm buying on Day 1 anyway. Quite often I'll get some kind of offer for pre-purchasing it a day before release.

I'm not often tempted by paltry DLC offerings like "pre-order and get a unique badge to show other players that you pre-purchased!" Like WTF is that?! I'm also dissuaded if there's a review embargo, which makes me second-guess the publisher's confidence in the game's integrity.

Buying on release, or at least within a close period, is particularly important for multiplayer games which could die out a year or two down the road. This is especially problematic for me on certain PC releases. It doesn't apply to all titles of course, some are just timeless and people still play religiously.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 03:56:18 PM »
Bethesda officially just joined some of the other big publishers in withholding review copies until release day.  While I don't normally buy games at launch, at least there was a possibility that I would, given that reviews would be available beforehand.  Now, there is no chance at all, for games from a growing number of these publishers.

The last game I preordered was Zelda 64.  Things were very different then.  Major game developers could be trusted to put out high-quality products, and that those products would be in great technical shape right out of the starting gate.  Now, I have no trust at all, in anyone.  I need full disclosure of all facts related to a game before I'd spend any money on it.  Most important in the vetting process is whether the base game is worth the retail price all by itself.  Microtransactions and online connectivity must be completely optional.

Sad that it's come to this.

Offline W7RE

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 05:17:30 PM »
If I get the game on release day, I preorder. Period. But this is primarily so I can preload, as I buy everything digitally, even if it costs me a little more. Some games I just know that I'm going to enjoy, and others I'm just too excited about to NOT get on release day. Also, if it's got multiplayer and I've got friends getting it, I usually get it on release day.

Games I can recall preordering this gen:
Destiny + season pass (as well as preordering the later non-season pass DLC)
Diablo: Reaper of Souls
Doom 2016
Dying Light
Gears of War 4
H1Z1 (bought before early access launched)
Halo 5
Overwatch
State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition
Sunset Overdrive
The Division + season pass
Wolfenstein: The New Order (preorder bonus was access to the Doom beta!!)
Warcraft: Legion
Zombie Army Trilogy



The only real disappointment out of those was The Division, and I didn't feel it until I had logged 30+ hours and gotten to the endgame. And maybe H1Z1, because it's been like 2 years and it's still not a finished and polished product.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 06:42:48 PM »
Nope on buying games on pre-order, upon release, or a little after it. For me to do this, the game must have a substantial discount.

In an era where PC games are at least somewhat busted upon release for whatever release (poor drivers out for this game, game doesn't work well w/ NVidia, poor PC port, poor PC optimization) - why spend $40-60 upon week of release? Often, better off waiting for the game to get cheaper + be in a better patched-up state.

Then there's the DLC, Expansion, and Season Pass milking nonsense. Why buy a SP, when we likely don't know what the hell's even going to be in Season Pass? I mean, look at Batman Arkham Knight for some of the least time-consuming Season Passes that cost quite a bit of money upon pre-order of the SP ($40 upon pre-order for Season Pass, IIRC).

If that isn't enough about Season Passes, buying Season Passes don't always get you every piece of future DLC content - i.e. go see Saints Row: The Third, Borderlands 2 + Dying Light.

And who knows if some games might even decide to do a Second Second Pass....or who knows if some companies might even decide to do Multiple Season Passes.

Then, we have the Re-Release Nonsense - when later, you can drop $60 for a Complete Edition w/ EVERYTHING - i.e. Dragon Age: Origin has an Ultimate Edition w/ all DLC's + expansions; Dragon Age Inquisition now has a Game Of The Year Edition w/ base-game + ALL DLC's; Skyrim has a Legendary Edition with all DLC's; Dead Island + DI: Riptide now have GOTY Editions.

Is this enough? Nope - now some games, have even later HD Remasters that come w/ Base-Game + ALL DLC's Expansions + Overhaul of Graphics Textures/Graphics Features/Engine Overhaul + Game itself might be re-worked/rebalanced/content added - i.e. Skyrim has Skyrim: Special Edition (but at least on Steam, Legendary owners get this free); Dead Island and DI: Riptide now have Definitive Editions; Deus Ex: HR has a Director's Cut; Sleeping Dogs has Defintiive Edition; Metro 2033 + Metro Last Light getting Redux Editions; etc etc.

EDIT:
Then we have games getting de-valued by winding up in Bundles on Humble Bundle, Bundle Stars, and some sites like those. If you ain't bought a title - who knows, your best bet could be to buy it from a Bundle Site...and likely, you'll get a handful of other titles in the bundle REAL CHEAP, also.

« Last Edit: Thursday, October 27, 2016, 09:23:54 AM by MysterD »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 06:54:02 PM »
If I get the game on release day, I preorder. Period. But this is primarily so I can preload, as I buy everything digitally, even if it costs me a little more. Some games I just know that I'm going to enjoy, and others I'm just too excited about to NOT get on release day. Also, if it's got multiplayer and I've got friends getting it, I usually get it on release day.

Games I can recall preordering this gen:
[snip]
The Division + season pass
[/snip]

The only real disappointment out of those was The Division, and I didn't feel it until I had logged 30+ hours and gotten to the endgame. And maybe H1Z1, because it's been like 2 years and it's still not a finished and polished product.

Word is, in general, since the newest patch on Oct 25th - Division has been improved IMMENSELY; especially the End-Game.

Forbes on Patch 1.4 of Division - http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/10/26/the-division-1-4-patch-review-not-too-little-but-probably-too-late/#7f285a0c484f

Offline W7RE

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 07:43:19 PM »
Word is, in general, since the newest patch on Oct 25th - Division has been improved IMMENSELY; especially the End-Game.

Forbes on Patch 1.4 of Division - http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/10/26/the-division-1-4-patch-review-not-too-little-but-probably-too-late/#7f285a0c484f

Yeah I jumped in and played a bit last night. I played for an hour or two and got like 4 or 5 upgrades, including some set pieces. It's nice that I can now play solo and get gear instead of being forced to do the raids. I need to dig into the first DLC though, because I could use some new content other than the base game. I had already stopped playing when the first DLC came out so I haven't done any of it.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 08:15:50 PM »
I do still sometimes buy games on release if they're something I'm really anticipating. But usually just a very few big things, or smaller stuff that's reasonable even without a discount. Otherwise I wait a while. I virtually never wait for reviews because I'm so deep in this industry that at this point, I'm rarely surprised by anything. Maybe my own reaction to a game, but almost never what a game actually turns out to be. Obviously some technical issues can't be predicted, but reviews don't often help with that, as they rarely form a consensus on technical fitness.

I do find myself wanting Civ 6, though. Haven't played a Civ in a while. I kind of hate Civ, though, because it's like ... why buy it when I know there will be 87 expansions and eventually some GOTY edition that makes the game more complete for less?

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline W7RE

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 11:32:40 PM »
Yeah I get how you feel like you know what's going on and reviews don't help much. I feel the same way. Even when something misses the mark, you can usually tell ahead of time if you're paying enough attention to the game (which if I'm thinking about preordering, I'm paying attention). I don't think I've had a game really surprise me by being bad since Aliens: Colonial Marines, and that's specifically because of false advertising. I guess it helps that so many big name games have a playable beta or demo, so you can get a small taste of what the game is really like.

Offline K-man

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #9 on: Thursday, October 27, 2016, 06:43:54 AM »
Both D and Que raise an excellent point.  Now we can pretty much expect GOTY or an otherwise compiled release for certain titles.  Having become much more comfortable in waiting for a deal it makes zero financial sense to buy in on the front end.  Why buy it piecemeal for 100+ bucks when I can just wait and buy it all in a single nice package for half that (or less)?

It's the reason I have yet to touch games like Fallout 4.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #10 on: Thursday, October 27, 2016, 08:27:00 AM »
Some games I want ASAP.  But I still refuse to go in blind.  I need feedback.  Professional reviews are getting a lot of hate lately, and while I understand where some of that comes from, it would be silly to throw out the baby with the bath water.  They are the only source of information that is even remotely trustworthy.  The key, I think, is consensus.  Idem for Metacritic: same hate, same baby, same bathwater.  These are information tools.  Wielding them with some care and thought can be very helpful.  Their lack would be a huge loss to us.

The best is when a game flies under my radar, then suddenly I realize I really want it.  I got the complete Fallout 3 (GotY) in one shot for a good price, for example, about a year after release.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #11 on: Thursday, October 27, 2016, 09:18:00 AM »
Both D and Que raise an excellent point.  Now we can pretty much expect GOTY or an otherwise compiled release for certain titles.
Not always. PC versions of Mass Effect 2+3; and Dragon Age 2 never had any sort of Re-Release with any of the major DLC's. Damn BioWare and their BioWare Point system schemes.

Quote
Having become much more comfortable in waiting for a deal it makes zero financial sense to buy in on the front end.  Why buy it piecemeal for 100+ bucks when I can just wait and buy it all in a single nice package for half that (or less)?
I agree w/ this for the most part; especially w/ games that aren't time-sinks.

Quote
It's the reason I have yet to touch games like Fallout 4.
Games that are long-winded + time-sinks that I know I'm going to spend lots of time with, those I'm more likely to go after - even at higher prices; even if it's just the base-game.

If I'm spending some $ on the base-game, I want some "bang-for-my-$". Even if I do have to re-buy the game w/ a GOTY Edition or Ultimate Edition to collect the DLC later, I'll do it. Done it w/ at least Borderlands 1+2; DAO; Fallout 3. Probably gonna do it at some point with DAI, also - since I only have the base-game & do want the DLC's. It sucks, in a sense b/c you already own the base-game (at least) and it's often your best bet to re-buy a Re-Release you namely get what's missing (DLC's, expansions, etc) - but DAI base-game did get me at least 160 hours on one playthrough; so it ain't too bad there to get double-dipped on.

I do like quite a bit of "bang-for-the-buck"...and Bethesda RPG's often do happen to do that for me. I've spent over 105 hours w/ Fallout 4 - and yes, I even bought the Season Pass. I only bought the SP b/c they planned to pull a Techland (see what they did w/ Dying Light) & raised the price from $30 to $50 MSRP b/c they planned to add more content to the Season Pass. So, I bought it for $24 on GMG right before the price jumped up b/c I didn't feel like waiting for either a Complete Edition or the Season Pass to drop in price.


Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #12 on: Friday, October 28, 2016, 12:02:53 AM »
Yeah, I mean I don't suggest we stop having reviews, Cobra. I would think most people would still find them useful, so the backlash always confuses me. Only reason I don't find them as useful is because ... well, I write them, and I have spent far too much time in my life burying myself in games stuff, which has given me insights that generally make reviews academic at best. But I still enjoy reading people's observations about games. I certainly don't want the games press to go away in a critical capacity, and I think it would be a very bad thing if it did. My hope is that it grows into a larger legitimacy at some point. And perhaps it will since the raw opinion aspect seems to be resonating less with people.

And Kman, the only counterpoint to what you said is that sometimes it's nice to go in piecemeal. Like on a Civ, or Stellaris (which I'm playing the first expansion for right now). It's nice to get that first base game, enjoy that and learn the ins and outs a bit, then have something else to expand on that a little later, and then again a little later after that, rather than just getting this whole huge thing dumped on you all at once. For some games it's the opposite, of course, but I think certain titles that have a really long lifespan are worth jumping in early for.

If I had anything even resembling enough time to play Civ 6, I'd probably have bought in. It's got a full Japanese localization.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #13 on: Friday, October 28, 2016, 05:53:59 AM »
I bury myself in gaming stuff too.  I read up on it constantly.  But until there are hands-on reports on actual, finished products, I don't put a lot of credence into what I read.  I used to, but as I said in my last post, those were different days.  The only thing that can approach an earnest crop of competent reviews is a demo.  I've bought several games on the strength of a good demo alone.  We know how rare those have become.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #14 on: Friday, October 28, 2016, 10:38:13 AM »
I just don't feel vulnerable in that regard. I'm almost never surprised when a game comes out broken. Usually I had a flag in my head that said this is high risk, avoid until patches, unless release shows it actually isn't broken. Most Ubisoft games fall into this category for me because I know their past behaviors. Doesn't mean all their teams are technically incompetent, just that they have a tendency as a publisher to push things out half-baked and handle technical problems badly post-launch, and they don't prioritize the stability of PC versions. Other games might have no flag, pretty confident this will work okay, reasonably safe buy on launch. Obviously there's always the occasional surprise, and there are always things one can't divine through knowledge of developer/publisher or development period, but not enough for me to worry about it. I don't put credence into what I read either because I rarely feel the need to read anything (beyond maybe a headline or two, if any happen to come up). I seem to have developed a sixth sense for most of this.

Like my read on Civ 6 prior to launch was: good developer, good track record, high profile, but a huge and complex game that's going to experiment with changing systems, and a series with a history of semi-wonky launches. Unlikely to be totally broken, also not likely to be particularly well-balanced, and low but still statistically significant chance of smallish technical problems. Likely to have solid baseline international language support, likely to have a mostly positive response from users and critics, but a few people will probably flame it to death because it's a step backward from the last version. This was about right, give or take, and I read exactly nothing on Civ 6 prior to launch. In fact, I read exactly nothing on Civ 5. I haven't cared about the series in years (I love it, I just don't feel each iteration adds enough for me to get excited about blowing more money on it, so I tend to skip several iterations ... loved 1, loved 3, feeling the itch now to play 6). But I still felt entirely on safe ground making every assumption about Civ 6 that I made just based on probabilities. I don't think your average game player can do that confidently, which is why so many reactions to broken games are shock and dismay.  I hope it doesn't sound like I'm bragging or something, I just feel like the industry is pretty readable to me at this point without needing a firsthand report on everything. It can often be safely predicted within a reasonable margin of error, I think, and that makes me feel fairly safe if I decide to take a risk on a launch product.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline K-man

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #15 on: Sunday, October 30, 2016, 04:05:37 PM »
demos can be a double-edged sword.  I had written off Catherine entirely based upon the demo.  Thankfully Que's talking about it convinced me to take another look when it went on sale again.  Hands-down one of the most unique and well-crafted puzzle games I've ever played. 

Civ...yeah, I mean you know what you're getting.  In a sense you're playing a great game at launch.  But you go into it knowing there's going to be bugs and that in a sense you'll be beta testing it.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #16 on: Monday, October 31, 2016, 05:53:57 AM »

Offline K-man

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #17 on: Monday, October 31, 2016, 07:00:39 AM »
There are exceptions to what I'm about to say, but in general I won't be purchasing games until I have had a chance to read a few reviews beforehand.  All Bethesda will do with that policy is lose my money on launch day, which probably would not have been there anyway.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #18 on: Monday, October 31, 2016, 10:28:55 AM »
That's pretty much what I think too.  If most prospective buyers were like us, Bethesda's (and others') policy would only delay their revenue.

Offline scottws

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #19 on: Tuesday, November 01, 2016, 09:52:45 AM »
I barely play games anymore.  I don't visit videogame related websites at all and what news I get about games I get via word of mouth from here or other friends.  The last game I got was Star Wars: Battlefront and before that it was Grand Theft Auto V.  I bought the latter one used way later than the release date.

There are many reasons gaming and I have parted ways.  The primary reason is that I just don't have a lot of free time to invest in games.  And when I say "free time", I'm only talking about time I'm not sleeping, working, traveling to or from work, or doing the absolute essentials like grocery shopping or manipulating my finances.  So "free time" also includes time that could be spent maintaining the house or yard or studying technologies and trends in my field.

Another big reason is financially-related.  The new(ish) woman in my life has a career in finance and she's really opened my eyes into the concepts of wealth and money management.  It was just unbelievable how many simple opportunities for significantly increasing my wealth I've missed over the years.  I just don't find a lot of value in spending any amount of money or time on games any more.  Saving and investing money for retirement has become far more important.

There are several other smaller reasons, such as a general lack of interest in games that I've developed over time that I can't really explain and the fact that my woman was in a previous relationship where the guy was up all night playing WoW and spending real money on in-game items, so she sort of has shell shock with videogames and tends to get bent out of shape if I spend more than an hour playing a game.

Edit: With regards to gaming reviews, its a shame that the companies that run the gaming press to - for the most part - be whores for the games publishers.  This certainly isn't the rule, but it is far too often the case.  For whatever reason, videogame journalism or at least the outfits themselves seem to lack that integrity and ethics that most of the more traditional journalism outfits have.
« Last Edit: Tuesday, November 01, 2016, 02:16:37 PM by scottws »

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #20 on: Tuesday, November 01, 2016, 12:37:56 PM »
I rarely buy games at release. I am so busy with two jobs and freelancing that I get little time. I've just upgraded my PC and I was super tempted by Civilization 6, but I realize I have a huge backlog. I want to finish Fallout 3 and The Witcher 2 for starters.

Offline gpw11

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #21 on: Monday, November 07, 2016, 03:37:13 PM »
I think the last game I bought at release was Mass Effect 3 (Note: I bought Overwatch fairly close to release as well, kind of by surprise).  Prior than that, it might have been Zelda OoT or Final Fantasy IX.  But you know what? The next one will probably be Mass Effect Andromeda.    I need to pre-load that shit and Vanguard my way through the enemy lines as soon as fucking possible.


I also just realised I had both Arkham Knight and Witcher 3 at release, but both were promotional giveaways.  Regardless, I probably would have bought Witcher 3 right away.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Buying games at release.
« Reply #22 on: Tuesday, November 08, 2016, 02:43:47 PM »
Yup, the last game I bought close to the release date was also Overwatch. It just seemed like a really fun game and everyone was loving it.